A tertiary alcohol such as t-butanol is characterized by high oxidation resistance and high reactivity of a hydroxyl group relative to a primary alcohol and a secondary alcohol. Therefore, the tertiary alcohol is broadly used as a petrol additive, a reaction reagent such as a tertiary butylation agent. The t-butanol is produced by acting a concentrated sulfuric acid on isobutene generated by cracking and so on, and hydrolyzing a generated sulfate with water. This process, however, requires treatment of sulfuric acid and reduces the reaction operability.
A preferred oxidation process from the viewpoints of resources and environment is a catalytic oxidation, which is conducted with direct use of molecular oxygen or air as an oxidizing agent. However, oxidation of a branched saturated hydrocarbon such as isobutane (e.g., C.sub.4-6 fraction) with air provides a demethylated ketone and it is difficult to form a tertiary alcohol.
In page 762 of the "Lecture Draft II" (1994) of 67th Spring Annual Meeting of Chemical Society of Japan, it is reported that oxidation of an alcohol such as benzyl alcohol or benzhydrol with air using vanadomolybdophosphoriate and N-hydroxyphthalimide provides a ketone such as acetophenone or benzophenone in a high yield, and that oxidation of fluorene or adamantane with oxygen using N-hydroxyphthalimide gives a corresponding adamantanol or fluorenone.